A critical mind, has no room for belief, only for ideas that as ‘information’ strengthen one’s power and privilege, to advance one’s struggle against enemies by the eternal Art of War.
Peace is the delusion of uncritical minds in a patriarchal order.
Factual ideas as information, and fictional ideas as anti-information function in a ruse, whereby anti-information distracts the focus from the factual information in order to mitigate its relevance to the level of a footnote. A ruse is the artifice of a critical mind to defeat an enemy by the enemy’s ‘belief’ in putative benefits, rather than real ones.
However, in order to close the information loop in the victor’s favor, the ruse must be coerced by neutralizing the power of infidels, apostates, and heretics to undermine the status quo.
Empires may fall when the power and privilege of their leaders is insufficient to cope with external exigencies such as flood, famine, and plague.
Weak leaders may rise to positions of power without the critical thinking necessary to survive the Art of War - foolishly pursuing costly wars or choice, rather than wars of necessity.
The supreme Art of War is a ruse that delivers victory without fighting.